Why data matters

The COVID-19 emergency has demonstrated the importance of understanding appointment activity in general practice, informing our national response to the outbreak.

This highlighted that not all clinical interactions with patients are recorded in the appointment book. This may result in an under-recording of the activity taking place in practices and primary care networks. This is potentially giving a false picture of overall activity and workload in general practice and primary care networks.

There are various benefits to practices and primary care networks improving how they report this data, including: 

Different models of working are being embedded in many general practices. Accurate appointment data demonstrates the changes in activity and workload, and supports practices to:

• understand their own practice activity and workload across the month and during the year
• identify pressure points that need mitigating for the benefit of staff and patients
• plan deployment of extra and existing staff, as general practice undertakes its biggest ever workforce expansion

Accurate data is crucial for local decision-making and workforce planning across the local health system to:

• help inform and understand demand and pressures in general practice
• identify areas which do not have enough clinical resources and inform service planning, including new services and new service models
• understand the use of Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) roles to ensure optimum take up and utilisation across practices

Accurate GP appointment data helps:

• better show the sheer scale of what general practice does for us all
• demonstrate and make the case for extra investment in general practice
• give insight about different ways of working and variation across the country